Today is Throwback Thursday over at StencilGirl Talk, and I jumped in this month to make a new art journal spread featuring two awesome oldie but goodie stencils (along with a bunch of others, of course!) I was really itching to use the Face Map Side Version 2 stencil by Pam Carriker, and I couldn't help but think of doing some kind of face to face concept in my art journal. So, I took that as my starting point and went with it! As I went, I added in the Fade Circle stencil by Michelle Ward - it's awesome for adding pattern to the background as well as layering with other patterns. Here's where I ended up:

I really ended up liking this spread, and I had so much fun with the process of putting it together! Here's a little overview for you of the different phases of the project.

Next, I traced the outline of the head on the gesso'd background - I flipped the stencil for the second one so that they would face each other across the center of the spread.

Following Anne Bagby's lead, I blocked in around the figures with black paint, leaving areas as I went to embellish the figures (no plan for what they would look like, I just went with what I was feeling at the time.)

Next I started tearing up pieces of my collage papers and adhering them in place with matte medium. I tried to do it quickly without thinking too much, but I was still considering where everything would work best - I just didn't spend forever overthinking every choice. Moving quickly and just going with my instincts and impulses led me in a kind of unexpected direction, but I found myself LOVING it very quickly.

The hair on both of them... totally my favorite part. I have no idea where the idea for the spikes came with, but I kind of adore that part of the collage.

I seriously considered just stopping here and calling it done. I loved it. Of course, you could follow along to this point and just leave it black and white. Or do more than one at the same time and go in different directions! (That's what Anne suggested in her video.) Naturally, I kept going - why stop now? The next step was to use the stencil to pencil in where the facial features would go.

I kind of sketched in how I wanted those to go and then layered on top with a permanent pen. From there, I pulled out some paint markers and started adding a few spots of really intense, glossy color.

I pulled out the Fade Circle stencil again and used some bronze paint to add pattern into the background. Normally I don't use the bottle directly through the stencil this way, but this one wasn't very juicy so it worked well (although watch out - you can tear up your applicators stenciling directly through the stencil like this.)

More color... this time using more transparent paints and glazes. I followed this with some straight bronze paint to get a bit more depth.

Hi everyone! Welcome to my stop on this week's blog hop with StencilGirl and Impression Obsession! This week members of both creative teams are combining StencilGirl stencils and IO stamps to make fun new projects that we hope you'll love!

For my project, I decided to decorate the cover of a small art journal I made a while ago that I haven't used yet (hopefully this will help change that.)

Here's what I came up with:

This could also work for an art journal page, mixed media canvas or panel... it could translate to a handmade card as well! Here's a little overview of my process as I made my cover, along with links to the products I used.

First, I used gold pigment ink and embossing powder and stenciled with my Decorative Folk Flower Screen stencil until I had covered the whole background. (I inked, applied the powder, and embossed before moving onto the next section. The background was painted back when I made the journal, so it made it easy to get started!)

Next, I took a few stamps and used black ink to add in a little texture. I randomly stamped over the cover without using a mount since I didn't want the entire image to print. I rubbed off over the embossing so that the stamping just showed up on the background (obviously you could do this before stenciling and embossing, but that would just be too easy.) For this step I used images from the Alphabet Scramble and Faded Fragments stamp sets, both by Seth Apter for Impression Obsession.

With the background done, I moved on to the frame that I wanted to make for my focal point image. To do this, I got a good piece of thick paper (I used a scrap of Rieves BFK left over from an art class,) and then I tinted some molding paste with fluid acrylic paints. I put a nice, thick coat of molding paste through my Decorative Medallion Repeating Corner stencil - probably about 2mm thick. I used a heat gun to form enough of a skin that I could move on to the next section without smudging the paste (I made sure to oscillate it a lot so that I wouldn't bubble the wet molding paste.)

Once I had repeated the image four times to complete my medallion, I let it dry long enough to handle and then cut around it and applied some gold spray ink. I used a baby wipe to clean the ink off of the molding paste surface so that it only stained the paper.

I set that aside and worked on the focal point of the cover - I knew that I wanted to build everything around this Peacock stamp from Hannah Davies Designs. (As soon as I saw this stamp, I knew it had to be mine! LOL.) I stamped it in black on heavy copy paper and colored it with Inktense pencils and Staedtler Triplus Fine-liner pens. (Later, I colored the background with a gold acrylic glaze.)

After I colored the image, I used the Simple Geo Squares stencil by Kae Pea to frame the image and determine what was going to be shown through the frame I was making with my molding paste medallion. I traced the line around the peacock, then as you can see below, I used it again to trace on the back of my medallion to know where my opening was going to be.

I cut out my opening and then glued the image to the back of the frame.

I went ahead and glued the frame onto the journal cover, then used some Aves Apoxie - Fixit Sculpt, and put a clay border around the opening to frame it. I embedded some metal findings and rhinestones, then I used an another image from Seth's Faded Fragments stamp set to add some texture. I spritzed the stamp with a mold release spray and then pressed it into the soft clay. The mold release made it so that it didn't stick to the clay or ruin the stamp, and I got some really fabulous texture!

When the clay was cured, I painted the clay with black gesso and then added some Art Stones around the edge for texture.

In between clay drying and paint curing, I also made a little label to be a title for the front of the book. I stamped a ticket image from the Balzer Designs Tickets stamp set, then used another image from Seth Apter's Alphabet Scramble set with gray ink to add some pattern to the background. Once that was done, I took the "Saturday" stamp from the Balzer Designs Days of the Week set and used a black brush marker to just ink one letter at a time so I could spell "ART" on my ticket / title card. On the back of the stamp I placed my finger over top of the letter so that I would know where the letter was when I went to stamp it - it worked great!

I finished up by adding a few layers of paint on top of my clay frame, then I glued my title tag onto the cover.

I also decided I wanted a little more stamping on the background, so I used the numbers stamp from the Balzer Designs Tickets stamp set and put the lightest wash of white paint inside the image. I really love how it turned out.

Voila! Finished art journal cover!

I really hope you enjoyed my project today... make sure you visit all of the blogs on this week's hop and leave comments so that you can be eligible for an awesome...

GIVEAWAY!!!

StencilGirl Products will be giving away a $25 Gift Certificate to TWO lucky winners!

Impression Obsession will be giving away a $25 Gift Certificate to TWO lucky winners!

Visit the fabulous designers from both teams and comment for your chance to win one of these 4 great prizes during the hop!

The more blogs you comment on, the more chances you have to WIN!(One comment per person per blog please.)

You have until Friday, September 30th at 11:59PM Central Time to leave your comments.

Hi all, just dropping in to let you know that I have a new project and tutorial over on StencilGirl Talk - this month's installment of Gwen's Gems features a stenciled mixed media collage on a cradled panel. I'm sharing a tutorial to go with it, as well as the story of how my original vision was pretty much obliterated as I worked, and how I worked intuitively to just keep on going and see where it ended up.

Final verdict? I like it! I should let go of control a little more often :)

Make sure you stop by StencilGirl Talk to see more photos along with the tutorial.